UF and France sign cooperative four-year research agreement

July 7, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida and two biomedical institutes in France have signed a four-year cooperative agreement on biopharmaceutical research that is designed to help bring new therapies to clinical trials.

“From the university’s perspective, it is an important conduit of scientific exchange and really the beginning of broader interactions that will happen at the scientific level, specifically in translational biopharmaceutical research,” said Richard Snyder, a faculty member in the department of molecular genetics and microbiology, and director of the Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology at UF. Snyder co-signed the agreement on UF’s behalf together with Dennis Jett, dean of the International Center, and Win Phillips, vice president for research.

“We’re very proud to have the Center of Excellence for Regenerative Health Biotechnology, one of the state’s three centers of excellence in the state of Florida supported by the governor’s initiative,” Phillips said. “An agreement between UF and France is a very important milestone in the center’s development and in increasing its exposure. We expect it to have a worldwide impact in bringing opportunities for scientific development to the state of Florida. The agreement is a great step forward in that plan.”

Under the agreement, UF and France will collaborate on basic and applied research, with France providing trained researchers to work in the center’s laboratory.

The major French parties signing the agreement were Dr. Christian Brechot, executive director of INSERM, the French equivalent of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Gilles Follea, director of the Etablissement Francais Du Sang Pays De Loire, the French national blood bank. Clinigene, a European Commission-funded clinical research organization, and the Association-Francaise Contre Les Myopathies, the French Muscular Dystrophy Association, also are providing funding for the program.

“From the French perspective, it’s a great opportunity for us to access a key partner in the field since Dr. Snyder is clearly a leader in this particular area,” said Dr. Phillippe Moullier, director of the Gene Therapy Laboratory at University de Nantes and an adjunct professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at UF.

The kind of research that is being done at the UF center is important to meet medical needs and to satisfy the requirements of investors, who are reluctant to commit financing for promising biomedical discoveries that have not reached clinical stages, Snyder said.

“There are many diseases, rare diseases, that are not of interest to major pharmaceutical companies because they just don’t have the revenue potential,” he said. “As a result, funding for certain diseases is very limited. So driving some of the research in rare diseases at the academic and federal level are attempts to fill in those gaps not filled by pharmaceutical companies.”

One of the advantages of a transatlantic program is the balance it offers, Moullier said. If obtaining research money becomes difficult or impossible in one country, there might still be opportunities in the other country, he said.

Moullier said the contribution French scholars make to the program will be immediate. In a pilot experiment last year, Moullier said he sent one researcher from his lab with 10 years experience to conduct research in Snyder’s lab and within a year she was able to present her work at national meetings and submit it for publication.

Also instrumental in the agreement will be Carol Murphy, a French professor, director of UF’s department of romance languages and literatures and director of the France-Florida Research Institute, whose mission is to sponsor research activities and foster international partnerships between UF and the French.

“This is a very exciting opportunity for students and faculty at UF and it showcases our international prominence in the area,” Murphy said.

The international partnership with University de Nantes may provide for other academic exchanges in the future, Murphy said. “For instance, there might be an interesting study abroad opportunity to develop for our students at UF,” she said.